Alex Gurney took the GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette to pole position for this weekend’s Rolex Daytona 24 Hours.
The Corvette Daytona Prototypes continued to dominate proceedings at the famous American circuit with Gurney posting a 1m38.270s to secure pole position for the 52nd running of the event.
The GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing car was a full 0.2s quicker than the Spirit of Daytona Corvette Prototype entry of Richard Westbrook/Michael Valiante/Mike Rockenfeller.
The Starworks Motorsport Riley prototype, whose driver roster includes Kiwi Brendon Hartley, set the third fastest time but will start at the back after failing scrutineering.
The top LMP2 was the Nissan of Lucas Luhr, Alex Brundle and Klaus Graf, which will start 10th.
It proved to be a session of mixed results for the Australian and New Zealand drivers in the field.
IndyCar star Ryan Briscoe will start from 64th place as the GTLM Corvette C7.R he is sharing with Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia suffered from electrical issues. The car made it out on to the track but it was unable to complete a flying lap.
There were no such problems for Queenslander John Martin as his Action Express Racing Corvette DP secured fourth, just half a second adrift of pole.
Experienced sportscar racer David Brabham faces a tall order in the race as his Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD LMP2 was 3.8s off the pace of the leading Corvette DP placing him 18th.
In the GTD class, the TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage of James Davison was fourth in class while Asian Porsche Carrera Cup champion Earl Bamber’s Muehiner Motorsport Porsche was 13th.
The Alex Job Racing Porsche that V8 Supercars Shane Van Gisbergen is sharing with Cooper MacNeil, Leh Keen and LP Dumoulin was 16th in the GTD class and will start from 38th on the grid.
